The prints are reproduced as accurately as possible based on the original paintings. The images are not distorted in any way to make them fit standard print sizes. The images are enlarged or reduced proportionally to fit as close to the standard size as possible. This means the images are not cropped and each print will have every detail of the original painting. Consequently most prints will have a white border which can be covered with matte board prior to framing.

All orders are custom printed and shipped flat in boxes for domestic orders. Our largest prints and International orders are shipped on rolls due to shipping size restrictions.

A very important note: Each print is custom made to order and is therefore non-returnable. In the unlikely event that the print has a production defect, it will be replaced with the same size reproduction of the same exact piece of artwork. There are no exceptions to this policy.

About this beautiful image -

This painting by Caravaggio is located in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection in Madrid, Spain.

Profile Apocryphal. Nobility. Learned in science and oratory. Converted to Christianity after receiving a vision. When she was 18 years old, during the persecution of Maximus, she offered to debate the pagan philosophers. Many were converted by her arguments, and immediately martyred. Maximus had her scourged and imprisoned. The empress and the leader of Maximus' army were amazed by the stories, went to see Catherine in prison. They converted and were martyred. Maximus ordered her broken on the wheel, but she touched it and the wheel was destroyed. She was beheaded, and her body whisked away by angels.

Immensely popular during the Middle Ages, there were many chapels and churches devoted to her throughout western Europe, and she was reported as one of the divine advisors to Saint Joan of Arc. Her reputation for learning and wisdom led to her patronage of libraries, librarians, teachers, archivists, and anyone associated with wisdom or teaching. Her debating skill and persuasive language has led to her patronage of lawyers. And her torture on the wheel led to those who work with them asking for her intercession. One of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.

While there may well have been a noble, educated, virginal lady who swayed pagans with her rhetoric during the persecutions, the accretion of legend, romance and poetry has long since buried the real Catherine.

Died beheaded c.305 in Alexandria, Egypt

Canonized Pre-Congregation

Representation spiked wheel; woman strapped to the spiked wheel on which she was martyred; woman arguing with pagan philosophers